Control of Attention by Nonconscious Information: Do Intentions Play a Role?

Abstract

The present study explores the deployment of attention towards nonconscious information. It is both theoretically and empirically likely that the deployment of attention can be controlled by information which is not consciously registered (attentional priming), similar to the control of sensorimotor responses by nonconscious information (response priming). However, not much is known about the functional basis of attentional priming. The present experiment explore whether and how strongly intentions (current action pans) determine whether attention is allocated towards invisible information (so called direct parameter specification). The results demonstrate that intention-mediated control is possible, but it seems to break down easily, that is to provide a weak and non-robust type of control.